Writing Personal Essays

(This is advance notice on the chat topic for next Wednesday, February 25.)

Let's talk about personal essays. Do you write them? Do you want to? Have you had any published?

Good essays are much more than a story about something that happened to you. As Kathryn Lay says in the March edition of "The Writer" magazine, "It's an opportunity for me to share what I experience and learn, and to hope that what I've written will encourage, inform or challenge readers."

I've written a few essays myself, and two of them have been published. This is a genre I'm interested in, and "The Writer" features four articles on the topic. Reading those articles has me thinking about essay ideas and getting the urge to put another one together.

What are your thoughts and/or experiences on essays? Share here if you'd like, then join us in the chatroom next Wednesday for an open discussion about them.

Audrey

REAL Characters

The opening topic for tonight's chat is Characters. How do you turn those vague people floating around in your head, into vibrant creatures your reader will love? How do we make them living, breathing beings?

On the other hand, can a story be intriguing if the characters are stereotypes or cardboard figures? Is it possible to have a strong enough plot that the characters don't really matter?

If you miss tonight's chat, feel free to post your thoughts and opinions here. Just because the chatroom is closed, doesn't mean we are ready to stop talking!


Audrey

Are fairy tales bad for children?

Full article: http://features.csmonitor.com/books/2009/01/05/are-fairy-tales-bad-for-children/

I grew up reading fairy tales, and I don't mean the Walt Disney ones. I had those too, but they seemed like totally different stories.

Did fairy tales warp your mind? Did you find them educational? Do you read them to YOUR kids?

Opinions, folks! I feel like I'm talking to myself here. ;-)

Audrey

Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Good Writing

I've always believed that the best place to get info is from those who have traveled the road before us. (Which is what made last Sunday's chat with Maya Reynolds so great.) When people who are further along the road want to advise you, why wouldn't you want to listen?

I had never heard of this book before, but it's now on my to-buy list. Simply reading this short article gave me the feeling that this one may affect me as deeply as Stephen King's "On Writing" did.

Has anyone else read Leonard's book? What did you think of it?